Anil Kishin Gehi, MD, professor of medicine in the division of cardiology, has been awarded the Sewell Family-McAllister Distinguished Professorship in Electrophysiology. The professorship is designed to recognize an outstanding clinician, teacher, and scholar–who is a leader in the field of electrophysiology–from the division of cardiology and the UNC McAllister Heart Institute.
“We are very pleased to see Dr. Gehi honored for excellence in the field of electrophysiology, for leadership in clinical care, education and innovation,” said Dr. Rick Stouffer, chief of the division of cardiology and Ernest and Hazel Craige Distinguished Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine. “He is a superstar in his field.”
Gehi specializes in pacemaker and defibrillator implantation, device extraction, catheter ablation for SVT, VT, and atrial fibrillation (AFib). His multiple research studies on atrial fibrillation investigate symptom relief and catheter ablation. He was among the first to treat patients using precision cardiac mapping, a faster, more accurate catheter ablation that maps the rhythm disorder of AFib.
In 2017, Gehi received a $1.7 million grant from the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation to improve care and education for patients with AFib across the UNC Health Care system. The three-year grant has enabled Gehi to expand a pilot care model launched in 2015, aimed at reducing unnecessary hospitalizations for AFib patients. His pilot research, funded through a pilot grant from the UNC Center for Health Innovation, demonstrated promising results. Nationwide, 80%-85% of Afib patients presenting to the ER end up being hospitalized. Gehi’s pilot study reduced the percentage of hospitalized patients to 57%. Among other benefits, the model increased coordination of patient care which can often be complex.
Gehi graduated from medical school and completed residency at the University of California in San Francisco. He completed his cardiology fellowship at Mt. Sinai Medical Center, after which he received training in cardiac electrophysiology at Emory University. In 2008, Gehi came to the UNC School of Medicine to serve as the director of UNC’s Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology Fellowship. In 2014, he was appointed associate professor medicine.
Gehi was recently featured in a Chair’s Corner podcast discussing Long QT syndrome, an electrical disorder of the heart.
The Sewell Family-McAllister Distinguished Professorship was established in 2010 by a gift from Linda C. and Cecil W. Sewell, Jr. and a matching gift from Dr. Hugh A. (Chip) McAllister, Jr. The Sewell family requested the professorship title include the McAllister name to honor Dr. McAllister’s outstanding accomplishments in cardiology and visionary leadership of the UNC McAllister Heart Institute.